Nvidia's SHIELD (not to be confused with the SHIELD Portable or SHIELD Tablet) is probably the best Android TV box on the market, and definitely the best when it comes to 4K content. Now the SHIELD supports playing 4K movies and TV shows from Google Play Movies.

It's a bit strange that it didn't support 4K Play Movies playback before, especially considering the $69 Chromecast Ultra launched with the feature late last year. Better late than never, right?

NVIDIA provided this chart to brag about how awesome the SHIELD is.

In addition to using the Android TV app for Google Play Movies, you should also now be able to cast Play Movies from your phone at 4K. This new functionality should be available to both the 2015 and 2017 SHIELDs, since they're almost identical from a hardware perspective.

Probably just an update to the Google Play Movies & TV app via the Play Store.

pfmiller

Right, that was updated on the Shield just last week iirc

bozzykid

Yeah, I noticed 4k was available as soon as the app updated last week.

Duder12

You can buy movies in UHD now in the GPM Android TV app if the movie supports it. So yeah, its live. Must have been a server switch.

Look up captain phillips as an example.

Richard Branches

I wonder why casting to a chromecast device is different than that in android tv devices, for example, HBO casting wasn't available in the shield until recently but it's been available from the start in CC devices, anyone knows the right answer?

Duder12

Because its an app on android tv running in the background.

A chromecast is an entire device and you are casting to firmware instead of an app.

Richard Branches

But, what about the android apps that still don't have an android tv app but still works?

Tyler Humphreys

When you cast to an Android TV you aren't casting to whatever service's app, you are casting to the Cast Receiver app which is emulating a Chromecast device. This still doesn't really explain why the Cast Receiver app is missing functionality other than Google being lazy.

makapav

Correct. Google is lazy as fuck and did not learn from Android fragmentation. When does the right hand know about the left hand at home? So anyways, from my deep probing during the Chromecast audio fiasco at LG with their speakers, I uncovered how bloody inept Google product managers and planless they can get with their product/service SLAs.

I don't understand the question, but the problem is that the Android TV cast app doesn't perfectly emulate a hardware Chromecast.

Tyler Humphreys

Yeah, it is pretty annoying. Comcast doesn't let me sign into HBO Go on Android TV, and casting to my Shield doesn't support Dolby Digital (and I guess neither does the Android TV app), so I still have to use my old Chromecast in order to get surround sound from HBO.

Richard Branches

That's pretty lame...

Zach Mauch

...and they will only charge you $25 more per movie to utilize it.

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Josh

This story is inaccurate... Google Play movies and TV has been 4k capable since at least the 2017 shield launch.... And casting in 4k has also been available since launch.... Confused.... 😕

bozzykid

That isn't true. It was finally enabled with the latest GPM update.

Josh

Absolutely not true. I have had 4K this whole time. Have done multiple test views and have seen 4K content very clearly played through Google Cast as well as could see 4K content in the Google Play Movies and TV app. The amount of 4K content on Google Play Movies and TV was very slim, but it has been there since launch. 100% positive.

pfmiller

Umm, everyone else is talking about support for 4K content on the Shield TV. This article isn't about 4K content in the Play Movies library.

bozzykid

The Shield has supported 4K content since it launched in 2015. This article is about support in GPM.

bozzykid

Sorry but you are wrong. 4k content wasn't available in GPM on the Shield until the app update last week. Of course you could casting stuff in 4k in other apps like Netflix but that isn't what this article is talking about.

bozzykid

AP should fix the article to make it clear casting in 4K was added for Google Play Movies. It already worked in many other apps.